Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Tornados all around; Jonathan, kitties and I retreated to the basement bedroom at 4:30 a.m. when there were "rotations" above us (Mr. B had to stay upstairs and "watch"...:(...) ~ Major damage and deaths in Branson, across the state from us, and to the north in Harrisburg, Illinois; prayers for those poor folks...and it isn't even officially Spring...(no damage here, thankfully) ~

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Well, I guess they aren't exactly "pickings" ~ as in "Bootheel Pickers" (that's what I'm going to start calling Mr. B and myself ~ ;), since they were ours to begin with, but it has been so long since I've seen some of these things, it seems like it!

Here are some of the things we carried home last night...

This pretty little match holder has "Pat'd Jan. 15, 1861" on the back...

My Mom's little grinder (probably from the 40's)...it was my job to grind up pecans

if she was using them in a recipe;

I don't remember it ever being used for anything else.

Look at that sweet little rose decal!

This Bellodgia perfume (a pretty carnation fragrance) ad is from the 30s...

I was going to mat and frame it "one day".

Now that I've re-found it, this will have to go on my never-ending

to-do list...

This was my Mom's little book...I feel so fortunate to have so many books

from her childhood in the late 20s and early 30s.

They were probably all pristine until my Grandma let me "color" some of the

black and white illustrations when I was really small...(Grandma!!) ~ ♥

Saturday, February 25, 2012

This evening we have been downtown in Mr. B's shop (for a few years he had a shoe repair and leather shop), going through items that will eventually be brought here to the house...(I wanted to call American Pickers, but that's been vetoed). I came across some things of mine that I had forgotten about, however, and also some things that I thought were in the fire, and weren't ~ (Yay!)

Now I feel grungy (like when you've had a garage sale) and need a shower and bed, so I will leave you with another still-life photo from last year ~ these lilacs were SO gorgeous...I stole them from one of the older parks in town. That sounds bad, I know ~ but there are some HUGE old lilac bushes there; they must be at least 50-60 years old ~ and occasionally the city sends maintenance crews out to just hack them back, probably not knowing or caring that they are heirloom lilacs...:( ~ so, if I happen to catch them before the shrub-butchers get them (I start watching mid-April), yes, I get armloads! (I may also get arrested one day, but if so, I have my defense ready...just helping the city with the inevitable pruning!)

I thought they looked so pretty in my little transferware pitcher!

Have a wonderful Sunday! I will try to take photos of some of my "finds" tomorrow ~ :)

Friday, February 24, 2012

Here is another of the still-life set ups I did last Spring (another watercolor "hopeful" for the July Depot show) with a lovely pink peony from my sweet friend LaDonna ~ the peonies were almost gone (I'd gotten busy and hadn't realized I'd just about missed them) when I spied hers, which she kindly gave me...♥...I've put it in my favorite little crystal bowl (which I am determined to learn to paint) and set it on our chess table;

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Daffodils!...The "old-fashioned" kind ~ I haven't been out of town in over a week, and didn't realize that the "vintage" ones were already blooming along the county roads...I never fail to wonder how the seemingly random clumps came to be where they are (although sometimes it's obvious, around a long-abandoned homestead)...

I like to imagine who originally planted them ~ old-fashioned bulbs like these were handed down..."passed-along" to possibly a newly married home-maker of years ago...

At my Dad's farm, there were huge drifts of yellow "jonquils" as well as delicate, fragrant narcissuses at the top of the hill where a house had once stood. Right after the farm sold, I dug and dug one afternoon (in the hard, resistant gumbo!) ~ only taking the narcissuses, though ~ knowing that it was probably my one chance to bring some of them to my house in town, in the next county over. (The Narcissi bloom a little later...I will post some photos of them soon!)

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Today we harvested the remaining winter vegetables, in preparation for

Spring planting in the garden...

This meant a feast for the bunnies! Max and Ruby, our "Velveteen Rabbits", were so happy...♥

They love any garden produce...their supper tonight was mustard and turnip greens ~

Warren, however, never seems happy ~ in fact, he is one grumpy rabbit. You might think this is because his mate, Betty Lou, passed away in the fall; but no ~ he has always been this way...

My Mom used to say that naughty children were "angels with dirty faces" ~ Warren is definitely no angel ~ (Did you know bunnies can growl?... at least that's what it sounds like...a very annoyed "Grrumph!!" when I feed him...) but it does look like he has a dirty face ~ it's actually just that his fur is black-tipped on his face...would that cause such an attitude?

We have considered getting him another "mate",
but we're not sure if it would be

safe for the newcomer...

(All our bunnies are spayed and neutered ~ (after a surprise litter...they were darling, and they all went to good homes, but we took care that it didn't happen again!)...so, I don't think that is the reason for Warren's agression...) ~

We think he may be related to the angry little white rabbit in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"...

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Happy Fat Tuesday! In the past I've made a pancake supper (the traditional using up of the "fat" in the house before the lean Lenten season), but it just didn't happen this year...
Mr. B cooked, as usual, so I really can't complain...

Next year, though, I want to try a "King Cake", and bake all the little treasures inside...:)

I know lots of places have Mardi Gras celebrations, but it always just says New Orleans to me...

Though I've been several times, it was never during Mardi Gras...

Two years ago we went (during the summer) and took the two youngest boys,
Jonathan and Chris (then 15 and 20)...

Neither had been before, and they were amazed by the sights and sounds...the unique ~ sometimes

delightful, sometimes not ~ decadence that is the one-of-a-kind Boubon Street.

We had the house specials at Pat O'Brien's and Mother's, beignets at the open-air Cafe du Monde (the pigeons and their little sparrow sidekicks flock to your table as soon as you sit down, waiting for crumbs)...♥

We stayed in the 18th century Chateau Hotel in the French Quarter...so beautiful!

Monday, February 20, 2012

Here is the little baby-sprout I spied peeking up through the earth about a week ago...for the life of me I couldn't remember what I had planted there...I knew it was a bulb, but what kind? I just couldn't remember ~ old age is creeping up on me!

Then, when I was out checking on what other plants were coming to life in the garden, there was the baby...(and she had friends!) several inches tall, now...As soon as I saw the strap-like foliage, I remembered ~ the Naked Ladies! I had dug and potted a few of them when we moved from our cute little vintage house on Kingshighway; however, they didn't come up last year after I'd planted them at the edge of the herb garden, and I thought I had lost them...I was so happy to see them!

Naked Ladies are such curious plants! They are a true Amaryllis ~ "Amaryllis Belladonna" ~ and they go by a whole host of names ("A Rose, by any other name..."?) ~ besides Naked Ladies, they're also known as Magic Lilies, Pop-Up Lilies, Surprise Lilies, Resurrection Lilies and Belladonna Lilies. They send up inch-wide strap-like foliage about the same time that daffodils and other Spring bulbs bloom, then die down again ~ (for years I thought the mystery clumps of flowerless foliage were from someone's mowing them once too often!) ~ Then, in about mid-August, completely leafless flower stalks pop up ~ seemingly overnight, but I think they just aren't noticeable until the gorgeous (fragrant!) blossoms open...

Here, you can drive around the older sections of town in late Summer and see groups of the lilies in yards everywhere...little groups of them clustered together, like old girlfriends, gossiping...♥

Sunday, February 19, 2012

This afternoon I set up some of my Grandma's collection of tea cups to photograph...(a precarious stack...Grandma would have been holding her breath...and probably was!)...with a little moss and dried rose petals, and three sweet little eggs...(we found the eggs, unfortunately too late, when we moved our barbeque grill from the backyard of our other house to this one; they were in a nest inside).

I've been obsessed with nest and egg related things lately, in art work and decorating...and I've seen pretty little stacks of cups and eggs, so I thought I would try my own version...

The colors are all so pretty!...I love the periwinkle-blue and sea-green irridescents...

Tallulah was right there to help me...(some part of Tallulah could be
seen in almost every

photo I took (see below)...♥﻿

See the funny little open-mouthed bird in the above photo? He's a little Lustreware piece from

Japan, probably from the 1930s...I think he's a little ashtray, but he's much cuter just posing

in my photos and looking hungry!

That was my afternoon...procrastinating about starting a new watercolor (but having a lot of fun

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Most of the garden still looks like it's "In the Bleak Mid-Winter"...until you look closer ~

My dear friend Elaine and I bought "matching tortoises" at a little statuary place in Campbell, Missouri, when she visited me from New York last October...mine's loving the strawberry patch...:)

We found this rock in a creek near Meramec Cavern a few years ago, thinking it looked like a little cave...it's just the perfect little "Toad House"!

The Lemon Thyme is coming out with new leaves all over!...it actually never lost its leaves from last year, staying "evergreen" all winter ~

My children moved and replanted this shrub in my yard for my birthday last October ~ I knew what a difficult job it would be, and I told them that was all I wanted!...It belonged to my Grandma Launius in Essex, Missouri, and it is well over 60 years old. I was worried that it wouldn't be able to tolerate the move, and I really couldn't tell last fall, but it looks happy and healthy now, budding all over! I may have to get our nurseryman friend to come and identify it...Grandma always referred to it as a "Spice Bush" (it has tiny yellow flowers and does have a wonderfully spicy fragrance), but the leaves don't look like anything that I've found online for Spice Bush...whatever it is, I'm really thrilled to have it!

The Butterfly Bushes are all covered with velvety little leaves...I can't wait to see these bloom again!
Slowly but surely, Spring is creeping in!

Friday, February 17, 2012

No school today for anyone here...teacher's meeting ~ so both our youngest son Jonathan (who is a junior in high school) and Mr. B were home...we spent the day at appointments and running errands, and I didn't get much of a post prepared. So...I thought I would share some of my vintage St. Patrick's Day post cards now, instead of waiting until the actual day...that way maybe you can actually use them this year! I will post my favorite now, and continue to add to the post throughout the day tomorrow...so keep checking back! (Don't you LOVE vintage post cards?)